Upon arriving at the town Taylor simply said goodbye and went his own way leaving Becca on her own as promised. She began to walk the streets and compared the town to how she remembered it as a child.

She remembered it being bigger, or maybe it’s just that she was smaller. Either way the wood walls were now entirely stone. The buildings looked to be in a better state too. Seems like the town was prospering in her eyes. The people seemed happy and off in the distance she could see the older elf talking to a shop owner himself.

She frowned, he promised to not spy on her. She concentrated and reached her mana out to try to hear the conversation via wind magic.

“-you enough for helping us this much,” came a hearty voice.

“I’ve barely helped,” Taylor responded sounding a little flustered, “I just gave some suggestions and bought items I needed.”

“And you overpay every time like I keep telling you,” the hearty voice responded, “all the vendors you buy from haven’t had any money problems thanks to you, and because they’re so well off they can buy more themselves which in turn helps those you don’t buy from. And of course the taxes go to the town with the new governor and all, thing have been getting much better thanks to you simply shopping here.”

“I’m not trying to do anything great for this town” the elf responded sounding just a bit sad, “I’m simply getting what I need and giving you something that doesn’t cost me much in return. I may as well be giving you rocks.”

“Well then” the other voice said chuckling, “I’d love to see your rock collection!”

Becca canceled the magic, it didn’t occur to her to at he would be talking to the vendors or just buying something himself. Was the prosperity of the town thanks to her foster father? How could just one person do that much?

Seeing a stand with some sort of clothing she walked up to look at one of the dresses that was draped on a box.

“Oh an elf” a female voice came from her left, “are you related to the elf man who shops here sometimes?”

She turned in surprise activating her mana. Behind the stand was a woman in her twenties wearing a simple dress with red hair and freckles. She stopped her mana realizing she wasn’t a threat.

“Sort of” she said quietly, “he’s my adoptive father.”

“Well then,” she said cheerily, “I’m more than happy to help you find some clothes if you’re interested.”

Becca studied her face for a second, she was smiling and seemed genuine. With a sigh she said, “okay, though I think these are a bit too big for me.”

“Oh that’s no problem now missy,” she waved her hand, “I’ll just toss one on you and we’ll use some of these here pins to fit it right and I’ll sow it up to make it fit you.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She didn’t like the thought of a human getting close with needles, and maybe it showed a bit.

“It will be fine, the only person I’ve poked in the last year was myself,” she held up her hand to show a couple bits of cloth wrapped around her fingers to act as makeshift bandages, “happens all the time, but I make sure not to poke any customers.”

A little reluctantly she agreed to be fitted by the nice lady. Maybe her chipper attitude was to do with the trust she was starting to build, but she felt a little uneasy being back in the town. Maybe it was a good thing Taylor came along too.

• • •

An hour or two later after she was done with the fitting and having chosen a few designs, she handed a few nuggets of gold over to the lady for payment.

“Oh darling no,” the lady said giving all but one back, “even one of these is more than enough for the dresses you’re ordered.”

Becca being a bit stubborn tossed another nugget at her, “two is what I’m giving you at least. They’re so small and aren’t worth anything to us. Just take it.”

The lady caught the nugget, “well I suppose my mom always said the customer is always right.” She smiled at her, “come back in a week or so and I’ll have those dresses all ready for you.”

Becca nodded back and went down the road a bit looking at the stalls along the way. The road was bustling with people and the stalls seemed to have been getting even busier since she started getting fitted. The smell of meat and something else filled her nose and made her stomach growl.

She followed the scent to a stall selling some sort of cubed meat that was served in small heaps on a wooden plate. She walked up and plopped a nugget on the counter.

“Two plates please.” she said trying to use her manners, good food deserved good manners.

The man picked up the nugget, bit it, and put it in his pocket. “Coming right up”

He scooped up some meat chunks and brushed it with some sort of brown liquid and gave her two plates of the meat. “The plates are included so feel free to keep them if you’d like, also with how much you paid you’re good to come back for four more plates if you’d like.”

“I might,” Becca said almost drooling over the food, “why did you bite the gold?” She asked.

“Ever since you elves started paying in gold some people have been trying to do the same, but they brought fake gold.” The meat seller guy explained, “a blacksmith told us the trick to finding out if it’s real of not is to bite it. If it’s soft it’s gold, if it’s too hard to bite it’s fake.”

“Interesting, well thanks for the food!” She said turning around and feeling out with her mana to find Taylor.

She felt him just down the block taking to another vendor, so she canceled the mana and started to walk. The smell of the meat was getting to her, just what was that brown stuff? It smelled so good.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a stall with some hair decorations. She stopped to look, seeing none in particular catch her eye. It was a pair of long metal rods with one end covered in gold. She walked up to the stall and put down one of the plates and took out a nugget.

“Can I have these meta rods here?” She asked handing over the nugget.

“The Kanzashi? Sure sweety.” Said the old lady after receiving her pay.

Becca stuffed them in her back pocket and grabbed the plate and continued to where Taylor was. Turning the corner she saw Taylor turning to greet her already.

“I thought you weren’t gonna spy on me” she accused him.

“I wasn’t,” he smiled, “I just felt the only thing I wasn’t watching getting close, and the only thing I wasn’t watching was you.”

She held out one of the trays of meat, “I got some food if you want some” she said feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Barbecue meat?” Taylor exclaimed, “good choice! I haven’t had any in a while.”

He took the plate and with the wave of a hand produced two forks, handing one to Becca. She looked down, barbecue? Was that what the brown stuff was? She picked one up, plopping it in her mouth.

A sweet and savory taste spread across her mouth, the meat was a bit tough compared to what she was used to but it was so good it didn’t matter. She began to wolf her food down with gusto.

Taylor was doing much the same as he didn’t pause for breath as the ate their food. Soon enough their plates were empty and their bellies full.

“Well Becca” Taylor said wiping his mouth, “we good to go back home?”

“Hold on,” she said reaching in her back pocket, “I got a hairpin for you.” She held out the kanzashi and started to blush. Why was giving him things so darn embarrassing?

He gently took them out of her hands and wrapped his hair up in a bun, sliding them in to hold it in place. “I love it, thank you Becca.” He said was a gentle smile.

“You’re welcome,” she mumbled and turned around to head back home.

The human town wasn’t so bad, she actually kinda liked the people. Maybe Taylor would let her come back sometime so she could see more things the humans had.